GENETIC ENGINEERING
GENETIC ENGINEERING
Is a process of altering the genes which you
find in all living things
It involves the transfer of genes or parts of
DNA from one organism to another
Organisms whose gene are altered or
modified for specific purposes are called
TRANSGENIC ORGANISMS
HOW IS DNA USED IN GENETIC
ENGINEERING?
By definition, genetic engineering is the direct
altering of an organisms GENOME
This is achieved through manipulation of the
DNA
Doing this is possible because DNA is like a
universal language; all DNA for all organisms is
made up of the same nucleotide building blocks
Thus, it is possible for genes from one
organisms to be read by another organism
In the cookbook analogy; this equates to taking a recipe from
one organism’s cookbook and putting into another cookbook
Now, imagine that all cookbooks are written in the same
language; thus, any recipe can be inserted and used in any
other cookbook
In practice, since DNA contains the genes to build certain
proteins, by changing the DNA sequence, engineers are able
to provide a new gene for a cell organism to create a
different protein.
The new instructions may supplement the old instructions
such that an extra trait is exhibited, or they may completely
replace the old instructions such that a trait is changed
Genetic Engineering
Technique
The process for genetic engineering begins the same for
any organism being modified:
A. Identify an organism that contains a desirable gene
B. Extract the entire DNA from the organism
C. Remove this gene from the rest of the DNA. One way to
do this is by using a restriction enzyme. These enzyme
search for specific nucleotide sequences where they will
“cut” the DNA by breaking the bonds at this location
D. Insert the new gene to an existing organism’s DNA. This
may be achieved through a number of different
processes
When modifying bacteria, the most common method for this
final step is to add the isolated gene to a PLASMID, a circular
piece of DNA used by bacteria
This is done by “cutting” the plasmid with the same
restriction enzyme that was used to remove the gene from
the original DNA
The new gene can now be inserted into this opening in the
plasmid and the DNA can be bonded back together using
another enzyme called LIGASE
This process creates a recombinant plasmid
In this case, the recombinant plasmid is also referred to as a
bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC)
What are the uses of Genetic
Engineering?
The purposes of doing genetic engineering are many. These
include:
1. Repairing a genetic “defect” (as with the current early
trials of gene therapy in humans)
2. Enhancing an effect already natural to that organism
(e.g. to increase its growth rate)
3. Increasing resistance to disease or external damage
(e.g. crops – blight, cold or drought)
4. Getting a micro-organism to produce human insulin for
diabetics, or a sheep to produce a human blood-clotting
protein in her milk, in both cases a transgenic method
5. Getting a tomato to ripen without going
squashy – this can be done simply by taking one
its own genes, turning its “pattern” upside
down and putting it back again
GMO (Genetically Modified
Organisms)
GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) are
living organisms whose genetic material has
been synthetically manipulated in a
laboratory through genetic engineering or GE
This relatively new science creates unstable
combination of plant, animal, bacterial and
viral genes that do not occur in nature or
through traditional crossbreeding methods
Practically all commercial GMO’s are engineered to
withstand direct application of herbicide and/or to
produce an insecticide
Despite biotech industry promises, none of the GMO
traits currently on the market offer increased yield,
drought tolerance, enhanced nutrition, or any other
consumer benefit
Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence connects
GMO’s with health problems, environmental damage
and violation of farmers and consumers rights
What is Cloning?
In 1997, a 7-month old sheep named Dolly
became a celebrity
Do you know why?
Dolly is the first cloned animal
What is cloning?
CLONING is a method that scientists use to
produce a genetic copy of another individual
In other words, Dolly is a clone of her mother
Well, actually, Dolly had three mothers.
One mother gave Dolly her DNA
One mother supplied an egg
The third mother, her surrogate mother, gave birth to her
Isn’t interesting?
Normally, an animal gets half of its DNA from its mother
and half from its father
Dolly is an identical twin of the mother who gave her
DNA
But Dolly is six years younger
However, Dolly and her mother are not
identical in every way
Since Dolly and her “DNA mother” have
different experiences, they are different in
many ways
Like human twins, clones have unique
personalities
Unluckily, Dolly died after more or less 7 years
of survival
Dolly, who was naturally mated at the end of last
year with a Welsh Mountain ram, gave birth to
Bonnie Monday, April 13, 1998, proving that
despite her unusual origins, she is able to breed
normally and produce healthy offspring.
Since 1997, the techniques used to clone Dolly
have been applied to many other animals,
including cattle, goats, pigs, cats, and even some
endangered species such an Asian wild ox.
GFP (Green Fluorescent
Protein)
The GFP exhibits bright green flourescence when
exposed to blue light
Although many other marine organisms have
similar green fluorescent proteins
GFP traditionally refers to the protein first
isolated from the jellyfish Aequorea victori
Scientists genetically altered these animals by
inserting a jellyfish protein with genetic
instructions to produce fluorescence into the
embryos
In biology, GFP is used for high-lighting specific structure
Compared to other fluorescent proteins, it is much less
harmful when illuminated in living cells
The discovery and use of GFP has triggered the
development of highly automated live-cell fluorescence
microscopy systems, which can be used to observe cells over
time expressing one or more proteins tagged with
fluorescent proteins
In 2008, Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shimomura and Roger Y.
Tsien were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their
discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein
